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89th Volta a Catalunya - UPT

Spain, May 18-24, 2009

Stage 5 - May 22: La Seu d'Urgell - Torredembarra, 201.3km

Trusov surprises in sprint

Team Katusha may have found itself a new sprinter: Russian Nikolay Trusov. The former track pursuiter took a convincing victory over Thor Hushovd, Cervelo's proven sprint winner. Trusov, who lived in the region as an amateur said he was familiar with the roads and this gave him an advantage in the finale.

It was "Normally [Alexei] Markov does the sprints, but today he was dropped with 10 kilometres to go, I seized my own chance," Trusov said, according to AP. "I accelerated for the line from a long way out, and I thought with 100 metres to go that Hushovd would catch me.

"But this time round, I just managed to hang on and take a really important victory for me."

The 23-year-old from St. Petersburg took his first professional victory in the 2007 Tour of Britain while riding for the Tinkoff Credit Systems team, but his top result before today was a third place in stage six of the 2008 Giro d'Italia.

The situation in the general classification remained unchanged, with Spaniard Alejandro Valverde leading Irishman Dan Martin by 15 seconds with two stages remaining.

The day started with four men going clear inside the first 10km. Steven Cozza (Garmin-Slipstream), Marcin Sapa (Lampre), Rafael Serrano (Contentpolis) and Javier Ramírez (Andalucía-Cayasur) gained a maximum 4:30 on the peloton.

As the peloton drew near, Cozza tried to go it alone. He gained 30 seconds on the bunch, but was caught with just 2km left to go.